


Easier Said Than Done

by Witch_Speka



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Assassination Attempt(s), Phone Calls & Telephones, Post-Canon, Xerxes | Cselkcess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 10:02:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19885792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Witch_Speka/pseuds/Witch_Speka
Summary: {Discontinued, read beginning note}Edward Elric started feeling more and more lonely after his wife's visits home started being more spaced out. Her job didn't leave her with lots of free time. While waiting for his brother to come back home from Xing, he gets an unexpected phone call. Said phone call ends up awakening some of Ed's deeply seeded anxieties.On the other side of the Great Desert, Al is getting stressed by the lack of progress he's making with his search, Mei is having family issues whilst Ling and Lan Fan are distancing from eachother.Everything is easier said than done.





	Easier Said Than Done

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying my hand at something more time consuming. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> EDIT: My plans for this fic have changed and I am no longer happy with this chapter, I am in the process of rewriting it as of right now. I might post some random drabbles and one shots in the meantime too. I rushed making this and now I regret it. Now though I have a better idea of what I want to do with this. I apologise if anybody hoped to see a new chapter, that won't come anytime soon. I hope to finish the rewrite in about a week's time. Sorry for taking so long, I'm slow as hell when it comes to writing 
> 
> I have some more drabbles and unfinished stuff on my account on FMA amino, my usernames there is Speka if anyone is interested

With Winry constantly having to work and his brother off East, Edward was feeling pretty lonely. He loved his kids, but having to keep an eye on them at all times really made him crave more "grown-up conversations". He didn't care if it was politics, childhood hijinks (he had plenty to talk about himself) or even the damn weather at this point. Just any kind of talk with someone that wasn’t a toddler would suffice. 

Plus it would make him forget about his wife. Ed wouldn't admit to anyone else except Winry, but he missed being able to be around her. The room was glowing every time she was there. After his long trip of discovering the West he settled in Resembool with her. Soon they got married and had their first child. This is when the loneliness started slowly making its way into his life, ironically enough.

Winry already had a stable job and Ed hasn't been in Amestris since forever so he became a househusband while she spent a good chunk of her days in Rush Valley, her job being their primary source of income.

The nights they could spend together became his most cherished memories, sealed deep into his conscious. He loved being able to hear her voice, being able to see her and hold her. Even all her criticisms of him and snarky remarks were kept firmly in his memory. Every phone conversation about keeping his automail in check or taking care of the kids. He missed the smell of oil and gears that filled the house when she worked at home. He missed her apple pie too, which he did try to recreate before. According to his kids that try was a failure though. When he told her about it on the phone she laughed. Her laugh, it resonated inside his mind, locked alongside other memories of her. The more he dwelled on them, the more it hurt.

The silent nights had a place reserved in his heart as well. The ones when Winry's feet would trail behind her sluggishly as she made her way to their room. Her yawns echoing in the dimly lit room. She always came to bed late, Ed made sure to light the lamp sitting on the bedside table for her before going to sleep. Most of the time he couldn't fall asleep though, no matter how hard he tried. Her presence next to him gave the man an incomprehensible sense of peace. It alleviated his worries. After knowing how relieving her presence next to him was, Ed became somewhat reliant on it for a sense of safety.

Without realizing it he became dependent of his wife and her liberating aura. After Alphonse started staying in Xing for undefined amounts of time and only came back occasionally, the dependence became stronger. His brother did promise he'll come back and settle in Resembool, but not before he's done with his researching.

On the side of learning alkahestry, he also started looking for information about their father. Hohenheim was apparently the one to bring the craft to Xing and this was a topic that very much interested his brother. Neither of them knew a lot about him, he left when they were merely five years old and when they reunited ten years later, the conspiracy that engulfed their country didn't leave out time for family bonding.

Despite his father being born almost 400 years ago, Alphonse hoped that there might be some sort of writings that his father left behind. Or at the very least, hopefully, some sort of mention in any of the ancient documents that seemed to never end. Asking elderly and town's folk about legends or stories they've heard might bring up some new information to light as well.

Ed wasn't against the idea, on the contrary, he was very much cheering his brother on and supporting him. After the Promised Day he started trying to understand Hohenheim a bit. Despite being absent almost all his life, the man was willing to sacrifice the last remain of his being to bring Al back. In the moment that didn’t make sense for Edward. Until then, in all of Edward's sixteen years of life, he never thought of Hohenheim as a father but he still remembers vividly how the man almost gave his life for the children he abandoned ten years prior. Thus that action made his seal of hate and pent up anger that kept him in denial of Hohenheim for so long break. It was the one time he saw his father act like a parent, but alas it was too late. He left soon after the fight was over and was found dead kneeling in front of his mother's grave.

Ed still wasn't sure of everything, his opinion of him changed but his feelings were still confusing and contradicting. He didn't understand many of Hohenheim's decisions, but he knew for sure that Van Hohenheim loved his family. In conclusion he too would've been happy with knowing more about his father's past. Despite all, Ed still didn't forgive him, it's not easy to deny the way you're feeling your whole life (especially when it's justified) but it made him accept Hohenheim and made the boy feel more content with his dissaperance from his life.

When him and Winry had their first child Ed promised to himself to be a constant in his kid’s life. He knew the pain of not having a proper family, he’s experienced the effects and scars that situation can leave and he would never forgive himself if his own children would have to go through anything similar. With his wife being busy most of the time, he took it upon himself to be the best husband and father he could ever be. The care and attention he gave his children was limitless and he was the one to perform most of the house chores.

Edward also tried to learn the skill of cooking, emphasis on tried. His attempts at cooking anything more complicated than toasted bread or fried eggs ended in imminent failure. Sure, his food was edible but it didn’t have much of a taste and any baked goods fell apart before they were out of the oven. In the end, he let Pinako be the cook of the house as even his kids complained about his stale food.

The cooking issue was a topic always brought up by Ed when he would start ranting. These rants were always filled with different excuses including “the ingredients were poor quality” and “the stove isn’t good anymore, we should get a new one”. With Winry getting tired of his whining he turned to someone else that could handle (and was used to) his complaining. His dear, dear brother. Edward might've barely called home during his travels, but when the roles were reversed it was different. The man would frequently call his sibling to discuss important matters (such as gossip and researching updates).

Alphonse had a weird relationship with calling home. During his four year long journey to get his body back he never called or gave any signs of being alive to his family. But, of course, with his brother home unable to do a lot, he would constantly get calls. It was weird to get used to, he knew his brother was feeling lonely but he, unlike Ed, was busy. 

Calling Al became a routine for Ed and except for him and Winry, almost no one else ever called him. That's why when the phone rang in one Sunday afternoon and the voice on the other end wasn't recognizable, Edward was confused and a bit intrigued.

Who the hell could possibly call him?

Edward hurried to the other side of the room where the phone was situated. His steps were quick but light as he tried to not make any noise loud enough that it would wake his sleeping children. He grabbed a hold of the phone and picked up. The sudden rush to the phone aggravated his already bad mood and the piercing white noise that echoed through the phone only made his angers worse. The voice that resonated in his ears seemed familiar, though unknown. 

“Hey, Fullmetal, haven’t heard from you in a while!” Mustang’s phony voice plus the bad signal resulted in his voice sounding more high pitched than usual and a bit muffled, making it unrecognizable when first heard.

“What do you want?” Ed’s tone was harsh, maybe a bit too harsh. But for that he blamed Mustang who called him five minutes after finally getting his children to sleep and made him rush across his living room like a madman to answer his call. “Shouldn’t you be doing your job at this hour?”

“Well, glad to see you haven’t changed. The lieutenant is busy so I don’t have anyone to keep me company, you must know already how boring this all is. If I didn’t talk to anyone I would’ve lost it.”

“Yeah, sorry, I forgot if people don’t give you attention you wither like a flower.” Ed wanted to smash the phone back in the holder right then and there, but alas he didn’t. Maybe he would’ve, if he too didn’t have anyone to talk to and was bored out of his mind.

“You’re just as brash as ever, I still can’t figure out how you managed to get married.”

“Just as I can’t figure out how you managed to become General. Do you plan to rule the country with that attitude?”

“Of course, a good leader should be honest, shouldn’t he?”

“You’re going to be honest when it’s going to rain in the desert.”

“Never say never, Fullmetal.” Their banter continued for a while and Ed didn’t realize until then that he actually missed their childish quarrels. 

“So, is the Ishval campaign going as well as they say on the news?” 

The Ishval Relief Administration (IRA, for short) began three years ago and it has already been met with a lot of criticism. When it all started war veterans were offended by the act, they who had been ordered to kill every single one of their people, are now supposed to help their land prosper? Their mixed feelings lashed out as a combination of not-so-subtle racism and shame, shame that they ravaged their homes, their people and now they have to take responsibility for their actions. Owning up to the damage done didn’t sit well with the soldiers and state alchemists guilty of the act. Despite that the campaign itself prospered, after all the whole thing was supported by Fuhrer Grumman himself. Scar (despite not being fond of his old name) also influenced greatly the other side of the spectrum, the people of Ishval. He became an advocate for the campaign, holding public speaking assemblies which helped his people warm up to Amestrian help after being forsaken by them for so long.

“I’m not sure what you’ve heard but everything is going pretty well. We’re starting to get more public support and over all the whole process of aiding the victims has been going smoothly, let’s just keep it at that. Plus I get the feeling Scar is actually starting to stand me.” Roy said the last statement with a subtle air of gratification.

“I thought he didn’t like to be referred to as Scar?” 

“He doesn’t but I can’t bring myself to call him anything else, I’m thinking I should resort to calling him ‘hey, you!’” 

“’Hey, you’ sounds like a great alternative to me.”

“He doesn’t let anyone call him Scar except for the Xingese girl, they have the most unpredictable friendship I’ve ever seen.” 

Ed hasn't heard from Mei in what feels like forever, the only things he knows are tidbits of information that Al tells him. Despite that he still vividly remembers an occurrence from last year when all three of them were visiting Central. Roy asked them to come over to have a talk about the new administration and Amestris' ties with Xing. When they entered his office, without any warning, Mei started springing and tackled the Ishvalan man sitting in front of Roy's desk, not even managing to budge him. Even so Ed couldn't help but stare in bewilderment as he saw the smile that spread across Scar's usually stern expression. His grin was so genuine that it felt a bit contagious. Mustang also just watched the scene in amazement, not knowing what the proper reaction should be. Edward knew those two were pretty close but their weird relationship felt like something from the land of fiction, an illegal immigrant looking for immortality and a terrorist born from a civil war. Who knew that was the recipe for a close knit relationship? 

"Talking about that girl, Mei Chang right? She's helping your brother with his research, isn't she? Are they doing any progress?"

"Well... they have some leads which is a good start but they have yet to follow up on any of them. They didn't hit a dead end though, that's for sure." Ed tried to make his tone sound as hopeful as possible. Mei was helping Al for the last year or so to ardently search for new information about their father. Even after this much time has passed they still barely had any leads and their knowledge on Hohenheim remained scarce.

"Your answer is a bit too ambiguous for my liking." 

"It’s not my fault there wasn't any breakthrough for months. Why are you so interested anyway?" 

"They're searching for information on the fall of one of the most prosperous civilizations to exist and one of the people responsible for said fall. How can I /not/ be curious?" 

"I told you everything there is to know about Hohenheim though." Ed's tone turned a bit irritated.

"That doesn't mean I can't be interested in the topic."

"Curiosity killed the cat, General."

"Yes, and satisfaction brought it back." Ed couldn't see Roy's face but he knew his lips were pulled into a stupid cocky grin and he also knew he would love to punch the smile off his face.

"You're so smug," Ed said with a scoff. "I can't tell how the lieutenant deals with you."

Ed expected to be hit with another snarky response but instead got nothing. The extended silence from the other side sent a shiver down his spine. His mind got flooded with millions of thoughts, none of which were positive. 

"Hey, Mustang? Are you still there? Did anything happen?" Ed spoke hastily, the tone of his voice changed and worry was clear in his words. A cacophony of thuds and murmurs could be heard on the other side of the phone. Ed's hand gripped anxiously around the table the phone was situated on. 

"The lieutenant is here so now I have to go back to doing my job. I'll talk to you later." When Roy's voice reached Ed's ears, his rapid heartbeat started to slow down. He let out a small sigh as his breath was starting to stabilize, deep inhales turning back into regulated breathing. This action didn't go unnoticed by the other man. "Did something happen?"

"Nothing, Al's stories just got the better of me I guess." Mustang wanted Ed to explain his weird answer but, alas, before he could speak, Ed started talking again. "Well didn't you say you have stuff to do? Get to working then!" And before Roy could say one more word, Ed quickly ended the call.

The man plopped on the couch adjacent to the small table the phone was on. He leaned back into the soft cushion, his gaze fixated on the white ceiling. Ed started to wonder why he got so worried in the first place. There was no indication of any possible threat, literally nothing was happening. So why did he react like that? Did his brother’s words have a negative effect on him?

Ed and Al talked on the phone a lot, but they were both aware that their conversation probably had some unwanted listeners. Because of that they had a small list of ‘forbidden topics’ they would not talk about. The list consisted of stuff like important revelations in the Hohenheim enigma or whatever political issue would pop up that week (as long as it wasn’t anything urgent). These topics were discussed only when Al would come home which happened almost every two months. From all these confidential conversations they had, the ones that remained with Ed for months on end were always accounts of assassination attempts made on Emperor Yao.

He wasn’t exactly sure why they affected him so much, it could’ve been the fact that his brother was always so close to all these attempted murders or maybe that the number of these attacks started raising considerably for the past few months. His sibling also told him that not too long ago, one of these attempts almost ended up succeeding which didn’t help alleviate Ed’s grim thoughts. Either way, these stories took roots in the man’s imagination and lingered for longer than needed. Being haunted by these morbid thoughts also made him think about Ling a tad bit more. From what Al told him he was doing fine, though Ed was suspicious at the hesitance his brother demonstrated before making any statement about Ling’s well being. 

While absent mindedly staring at the ceiling Ed’s conscious started getting flooded by somber images once again. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t shake off the worry that always resided in a corner of his mind. Ed would sometimes wonder what it was like to be in the Emperor’s shoes. What would it feel like to lead? How does it feel to have so much responsibility and also so much power? Just thinking that made Edward feel anxious. Xing was twice the size of Amestris and despite not having any basement demon monsters ruling the country from the shadows, Xing surely had its own handful of problems. Corruption was prevalent and the aggressive clan hate was still as prominent as ever. Ed sometimes forgets the person sitting at the top of this country is a man only a year younger than him.

The last time Ed talked with Ling face-to-face was roughly two to three years ago. Just a few months before finding out his wife was pregnant. Back then traveling (with or without companionship) wasn’t as stressful. Winry was asked to come and perform a check-up on Lan Fan’s automail. Automail was almost inexistent in the country and traveling the great desert for maintenance wasn’t benefiting anyone. Winry gladly took up on the offer and Ed tagged along. His stay in Xing was interesting, during his time there he also had an interesting chat with Ling. Ed just hoped his sloppy advice helped diminish some of the Emperor’s setbacks and doubts, which at the time were abundant. Remembering their trip made Ed feel a bit nostalgic, he suddenly got the urge to walk back to the small table and pick up the phone because he got curious again. Curious of what his brother was up to, if any of his advice stuck with Ling through the years, how much changed since Al’s last update. But he had to admit there was one more feeling playing a big role here. 

Worry.

Because he knew there was a pretty big chance of something very bad happening to his friend and there was a possibility they wouldn’t be able to talk again. Every single assassination attempt narrated by Alphonse became a what-if scenario in Ed’s mind. These scenarios would play out in his head and have the worst endings possible. He then realized why he was so worried when Mustang didn’t respond to him, why the silence bothered every fiber of his being. Ed was scared that if something were to happen, his last conversation with Roy would’ve been a dull, hasty phone call. That thought alone made his legs feel weak and his mind become clouded. 

It wasn’t something he wanted to think about, but frankly, he couldn’t help it. He had to accept the reality that death was imminent and that a good chunk of the people he knows were prone to dangerous situations. 

A loud thunder snapped Edward out of his thoughts. He looked out through the window and saw rain drops falling from the grey skies. He sighed. The storm brewing outside was going to wake his children and Ed wasn’t really in the mood to comfort crying toddlers. Ed got up and closed the curtains, obscuring the bleak image. Soon he heard his call, a muffled cry coming from the second floor. The man quickly ran up the stairs and into his kids’ bedroom. The morbid thoughts from a few moments ago took a back seat in the depths of his conscious.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm planning to switch the focus on Al next chapter. So look out for that I guess?  
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
